Are you planning to get married anytime soon? Whether you are getting married in the Philippines or abroad, you will need to apply for a Philippine Marriage Certificate, which would serve as an official and permanent record of your legal union under Philippine law.
In this article, we will talk about how Filipino citizens can get married in Oman by applying for solemnization of marriage at the Philippine Embassy in Muscat. Consequently, we will also discuss how married couples can submit a Report of Marriage (ROM) at the Embassy.
Contents
A. Applying for Solemnization of Marriage
According to the Philippine Embassy, it can solemnize marriages between two (2) Filipino citizens only. The legal age to get married is 18 years old. If one or both parties are below 24 years old, they would need to obtain the consent of their parents before getting married.
If one of them is not a Filipino, the couple must make other wedding arrangements, be it inside or outside Oman. Nonetheless, the Filipino citizen can still apply for a Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage (LCCM) at the Philippine Embassy. This would serve as a wedding license or No Objection Certificate (NOC), which is usually required in religious establishments, legal courts, and other embassies in Oman.
Requirements and Fees
To apply for Solemnization of Marriage or Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage (LCCM) at the Philippine Embassy, the couple needs to prepare the following requirements and fees:
- Application for Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage (with notarization)
- Certificate of No Marriage Record (CENOMAR) of both parties (authenticated by the Department of Foreign Affairs or DFA)
- Parents’ Affidavit of Consent (notarized, authenticated by DA; for those age 24 and below)
- Joint Affidavit of Contracting Parties
- Joint Affidavit of Witnesses
- Photocopies of Applicants’ Passports and Labor Cards
- Passport-sized photos of the Contracting Parties (3 copies)
- Fees – OMR 74
Before the wedding, all of these requirements must be completed and the mandatory two (2) weeks public notice should have passed. On the day of the wedding, the couple should be in formal attire. Moreover, presence of the witnesses is required during the ceremony.
B. Submitting a Report of Marriage
After the wedding ceremony, the couple should register their marriage by submitting a Report of Marriage (ROM) at the Philippine Embassy. If only one of them is a Filipino citizen, they can still register their marriage and get a Philippine Marriage Certificate. This could come in handy, especially with regard to immigration, banking, insurance, and other matters in the Philippines.
Requirements and Fees
To submit a Report of Marriage (ROM) at the Philippine Embassy, the couple needs to prepare the following requirements and fees:
- Accomplished Report of Marriage (ROM) form (4 copies). This can be downloaded through this link. It should be signed by the married couple as informants.
- Marriage Contract issued by the Philippine Embassy (4 copies), if the marriage was solemnized at the Philippine Embassy. Alternatively, if the wedding was solemnized at another embassy, the Marriage Contract should be notarized by the said embassy and apostilled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Similarly, a Marriage Certificate issued by the Ministry of Justice should be apostilled and include an English translation. The locations of the MOFA’s Authentication Offices can be viewed through this link.
- Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage (LCCM) issued by the Philippine Embassy (original and 3 copies). This should have been secured by the couple before the wedding, along with supporting documents including:
- Birth Certificates of the couple (apostilled)
- Certificate of No Marriage Record (CENOMAR) (issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority and apostilled by the DFA for Filipino citizens; and/or the corresponding certificate of the foreign contracting party)
- Joint Affidavit of Contracting Parties
- Joint Affidavit of witnesses
- Copies of Applicants’ Passports and Residence Cards (4 sets)
- Copies of Witnesses’ Passports and Residence Cards (4 sets)
- Apostilled Divorce Decree or Certificate (if one of the spouses was divorced)
- Apostilled Decree or Decision of Annulment (if one of the spouses had a previous marriage annulled)
- Apostilled Death Certificate of deceased spouse (if one of the spouses was widowed)
- Fee of OMR 10 for Report of Marriage
- Fee of OMR 10 for Late Registration. This applies to those who will register their marriage more than one (1) year after the date of their wedding. The reporting spouse needs to submit an Affidavit of Delayed Registration of Wedding, which can be downloaded through this link.
NOTE: If a Divorce Decree, Decision of Annulment, or Death Certificate of the deceased spouse is needed (in the case of widowed or previously married spouses), the document must be apostilled by the DFA (for Filipino citizens), or by the corresponding authority in another country (for foreign spouses).
C. Getting the Marriage Certificate from the Philippines
About three (3) months after submitting a Report of Marriage (ROM) at the Philippine Embassy in Oman, you can obtain your Marriage Certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). To do this you can either:
- Assign a representative in the Philippines to get the Marriage Certificate on your behalf. This can be obtained through any PSA Census Serbilis Center or SM Business Center; or
- Apply online through the PSA Serbilis website.
Additionally, if you need to submit copies of your Philippine Marriage Certificate in Oman – whether to the Philippine Embassy or any other institution — see to it that it is apostilled by the DFA. You can assign your representative in the Philippines to have the certificate apostilled on your behalf. To do this, you need to assign him/her as your Attorney-in-Fact (AIF) through a Special Power of Attorney (SPA) notarized at the Philippine Embassy in Oman.
Furthermore, you may also need to have your Philippine Marriage Certificate translated into Arabic by a licensed translator. This is a requirement in some government offices and institutions in Oman. As for authentication, keep in mind that only the DFA (not the Philippine Embassy) has the authority to apostille documents issued in the Philippines. Check out our article about authentication of documents to know more about this matter.
DISCLAIMER: The above guide is presented for general information-sharing purposes only. To know more about applying for solemnization of marriage or submitting a Report of Marriage (ROM), please visit the official website of the Philippine Embassy in Muscat, Oman.